Elephant Reproductive Behavior

     As aforementioned in this blog, elephants are social animals. It is very common for females to live with each other, and with their offspring for the entirety of their lives. Furthermore, many female elephants (AKA cows) live with their daughters, and then their offspring. On the other hand, male elephants (AKA bulls) tend to branch off around the age of 12. They tend to live alone, or with a smaller number of other bulls.

     When it comes to mating, there is a very small amount of time (a few days) that the female elephants can become impregnated. This occurs around four times a year once the female is at sexual maturity, at around 12 years of age. Her readiness is signaled to the male elephants by an odor that she exudes, along with vocal calls. Male elephants also reach peak testosterone levels multiple times a year (known as being in musth). This is signaled to females by their urine, and also their vocal calls. Female elephants will almost always pick a male who is in musth over one that isn’t.

      Elephant mating is a mutual process. Once the two elephants determine that they are both physically ready to mate, the bull will begin to “flirt” with the cow. She will usually pay no attention to him for a few minutes. If she is not interested, she can get away seeing as cows are quicker than bulls. If she is interested, she will begin to reciprocate the flirting. This flirting is done mostly with the trunks. The elephants will intertwine their trunks, and may put their trunks in each others mouths. To mate, the elephants leave the herd to be alone. After mating (which only takes a few minutes), the elephants may stay together for up to two weeks and continue to display affectionate behaviors towards one another. It is not uncommon for same-sex bonding and sexual encounters to occur in elephants.

This is a picture I took in South Africa of elephants showing standard mating behaviors with their trunks.

     After a female is impregnated, her gestation period is around 22 months. As previously mentioned, elephants begin breeding around 12 years of age, which is when they become sexually mature. Female elephants reproduce every 4-9 years, and rarely have twins. When an elephant is ready to give birth, the other females in the herd will circle around her. The birthing process takes around 2 hours. After the birth of the newborns, the mother closely and tenderly cares for her offspring. The newborns remain in constant contact with their mothers for the first year of their lives, and continue to remain very near to them for the next eight years! When the young elephants reach sexual maturity, the males will go off on their own, whereas the females may remain near their mothers for 50 years. 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elephant#Mating
http://nature-wildlife.com/eletxt.htm
http://www.ehow.com/how-does_4574022_elephants-mate.html

Hunting and Poaching

One of the most challenging problems that elephants have had to face is hunting and poaching for their highly coveted ivory tusks. Elephant ivory has been exported from Asia and Africa since the 14th century B.C. Their ivory tusks would be used for displays of wealth, and in the modern era, as piano keys and billiard balls. Northern Africa was wiped clean of elephants due to ivory hunters nearly 1,000 years ago. It is believed that at the peak of the Ivory Trade, nearly 800 to 1,000 tons of elephant ivory was exported to Europe alone. The World Wars caused a major decrease in the ivory trade, but there was a resurgence in the early 1970's. Japan consumed nearly 40% of the global trade, while Europe and North America consumed another 40%. 

The African Elephant population was estimated to be 1.3 million in 1979, but due to ivory poaching and only 10 years later, the population was reduced to nearly 600,000. Roughly 75,000 elephants would be killed annually for the ivory trade generating nearly 1 billion dollars. Fortunately, organizations such as CITES (Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora) established a limit to how many elephants could be killed for the ivory trade, greatly reducing the risk of endangerment. In 1990, CITES declared the international ivory trade to be banned. Eventually by the late 1990's, ivory trade was again allowed but limited and immensely controlled. 

Like the African Elephant, the Asian Elephant was put on Appendix One of the CITES in 1975. By the late 1980's it was believed that there was only 50,000 Asian Elephants remaining. Although it is banned, the Asian elephant species is still in danger from the ivory trade. 

Currently there is a major problem with poaching from China and Japan. In 2008, these countries made a purchase of 108 tons from certain regions of Africa. There is a lack of control over the ivory trade in China, and it was reported that at one time a Chinese document leaked reporting over 121 tons (tusks from roughly 11,000 elephants) could not be accounted for. 

Some African countries oppose the bans on international ivory trade, and poach still does exist. It is a major problem that the remaining species of Elephant have to face. Life alone in the African and Asian wild are challenging enough with the scarcity of water and food, but if poaching elephants for ivory persists, the species will be in great endangerment. 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ivory_trade

http://www1.american.edu/ted/elephant.htm